Published in stories on: Nov 18, 2014

Bringing Joy to Refugees through English Teaching

When I started TESOL I had no idea what to expect. All I knew is that I wanted to get there, learn to teach, and move on to whatever the next chapter was going to be.

What I didn’t realize was that TESOL is so much more than that.

During TESOL Practicum I taught a beginners class. I felt intimidated at first and wondered if I was doing anything right for the first couple of days but as I kept teaching, I began to love it more and more, not because I was giving my students this huge wealth of knowledge but because I started getting to know them as people. I started noticing how much they loved talking about home and how much joy they could have when we would play games. We had quite a few refugees in our class, and to hear them laugh while playing a make-believe grocery store game was amazing. By the end of our Practicum, most of the students that had been in my class since the beginning had moved up English levels.

Through all of this it wasn’t the satisfaction of knowing I taught them that, but it was the knowledge that they had seen a little bit of Jesus while being in my class that made TESOL so much more than I expected.

2 thoughts on “Bringing Joy to Refugees through English Teaching”

As a graduate from the TEFL Accademy, I wish to pursue being an English Teacher in Perth W.A, as I reside in Gosnells WA 6110 for Youth With A Mission in Perth Australia. It will be a great pleasure to receive a feedback and I would provide my contact details. Thank you.